CJ*C<. 



4 J A 

E 611 

.ni6 

Copy 1 



Al^ 



-j-t 



12" 



KANSA 

C(3MMANI)ERY, 
M. O. L. L. U. S 



AVA^R Px^PER. 



) 



WHAT I SAW AND DID 



INSIDE AND OUTSIDE OF 



^W) ^'^^^^P^ ^S^^^^^^^^^^ 






A PAPER 



IMSKI'AUEI) AND KEAU BEFOHK THE 



KANSAS COMMANDERY 



M. O. L. L. U. S, 



Ify COMPANION 

OrR. ]Mc-XARY, 

St Lieutenant lOlJd I'enna. Vols 



WHAT I SAW AND DID INSIDE AND 
OUTSIDH OF REBKL PRISONS. 



Some time ago I received a eoinmuuieatioii from onr 
worthy Recorder, requesting me to read a pajjer, and sug- 
gesting that I relate some of my experiences as a jtrisoiier of 
war. Long ago I learned to obey my superiors ; l)ut what 
shall I write? If of ])risou life,' of Avhat ]»art of it? The treat- 
ment of prisoners by the rebels during the war, is an old 
story ; you have (h)u.btless all read it ; it is an important part 
of the history of the late war, and the blackest page in the 
liook. Being a very modest young man, I have heretofore 
declined to recite my personal experience in public. It is too 
much like blowing my own horn. But some one has said : "He 
that blowetli not his own horn, verily, his horn shall not be 
blown.'' And as I ha})i)ei] to have the horn, I will tell von 
])art of what 1 saw and did, inside and outside of rebel 
pi'isons. 

In April, 1HG4, I was a staff officer, and acting su])erin- 
U'lideiit of negro affairs at Plymouth, North Carolina, and 
with Major 31arvin, — now a citizen of I.,a\vrence, Kansas, — 
was recruiting negi'o troo])s. Plymouth Avas the a(hance jtost 
of the extreme left wing of the Army of the James, com- 
manded by (Tcneral II. W. ^Vessells. 

Early in A|»ril our scouts infoi'med us that a strong" force 
was coming down to drive n-< out, oi'— take us in. On the ] Tth 
of .Vpril, we were attacked ))y a I'ebel force of over l(),uuo 
men. under command of Geiienil Hoke an-l (Tcsieral Ransom. 



Oil the third day of the siege, a citizen, Mr. Johnston, 
who lived near our picket line, came to me with the inter- 
esting information, tliat the rebel Provost Marhal, had 
oifered a reward of #10,000 each, for Major Marvin and my- 
self, dead or alive, and that our negroes would l)e shot at sight- 
I immediately sent him to notify Major Marvin, and I in- 
formed General Wessells. 

We had read a copy of the joint resolution of the rebel 
congress, approved May 1, 186:^, section 4 of which read as 
follows, viz : "That every white person being a commissioned 
officer or acting as such, who, during the present war, shall 
commaiul negroes or mulattoes in arms against the Con- 
federate States, or who shall arm, train, organize, or pre. 
l^are negroes or mulattoes for militar}- service against the 
Confederate States, or who shall voluntarily aid negroes or 
mulattoes in any military enterprise, attack or conflict in such 
service, shall be deemed as inciting servile insurrection, and 
shall, if captured, be put to death, or be otherwise punished 
at the discretion of the court." Section 7 of the same act pro- 
vides like punishment for negroes or mulattoes taken in arms. 

While Mr, Johnston's information did not change our 
status, it did give us cause to fear that the rebels intended 
to enforce the law in our cases, and did not add to our peace 
of mind. General Wessells suggested, that as we were about 
out of ammunition, we should send our negroes across the 
river into the swamp after dark, and that Major Marvin and 
I should follow them at the proper time, and try to make our 
way to our gun-boats then in Albemarle Sound. But "the best 
laid plans of mice and men aft gang aglee." A majority of 
the negroes refused to leave us, and just before day-light next 
morning, in a dense fog, while placing a section of the 24th 
New York Battery, I was wounded in the leg and captured. 
About 9 o'clock, what was left of our small force surrendered. 
I was then compelled to witness a sight which will remain a 
disgrace to the confederate authorities, and a reproach to 
General Hoke and General Ransom, for all time. Immediately 
after our men surrendered, the rebel soldiers commenced firinp; 



on the negroes, sliootiug" tlieiu down, old ixii<l young, wliere- 
ever they found tliem ; some ran for the timber and were pni-- 
sued by Dearing's Cavalry and shot as they ran. I saw two 
h)yal white eitizens, an ohl man aiul his wife, botli sliot. by 
order of a rebel Lientenant, whik' standing in their own (h><)r. 

In the afternoon General Hoke incjuired of Gereral 
Wessells wliat liad become of t'ohmel Marvin and Major Mc- 
Nary who were stealing and drilling negroes ? The General 
told him, they hail taken their negroes to Roanoke Island. 
He had introduced me as his aide-de-cam)). Major Marvin had 
been a Lieutenant in the S-ith. New York, and had taken his 
place with the companv. I did not feel comfortable, however, 
with the General, and in c<)m})any with the iVbel officers, and 
as soon as I could get an opp<.)rtunity, I went to the men 
and kept out of sight as much as })0ssible. 

Next morning the })risoners, — 2197, — not including the 
wounded, were formed in open order, faced inward, and five 
rebel soldiers nuirched through between our lines and looked 
every man in the face. They were followed bv a rebel Major 
and a Miss Norkum, on horse back. Miss Norkum and her 
mother lived inside our lines and had often received orders 
from me, on our commissary, for provisions. She was well 
acquainted with me, aiul slightly acquainted with JMajor^NIar- 
\'m. When I saw her I supposed it was all up with us ; they 
rode down one line and back the other. I raised my head and 
looked her full in the face, until she passed. I did not intend 
to look ])leasant. I supposed I was about to be betrayed b}- a 
woman whom I had befriended, but for whom, just then, I 
felt the utmost contempt. She looked me straight in the eye 
for a few seconds as she came towards me, and then turned 
away her face. She did not betray me. 

We were marched to Tarboro, packed in box cars, and 
started south. At Wilmington, immens*' piles of confederate 
cotton lay clo*<e to the rail road track, and as the train moved 
out I placed a lighted match in a bale of cotton. "The Charles- 
ton Courier" said, the Yankee prisonei'S — Plymouth Pilgrims 
— set tire to the cotton vards at Wilminoton, and destroved 



-to,000,000 worth of confederate cotton, — that the ><counflrels 
who started the fire shouhl he roasted alive, f'rom that time, 
until tliis chiv, we have been known among prisoners as the 
IMviiioulli I'ilgrims. 

We arrived at Andersonville on the ;}()t]i of Ai)ril. I 
shall not attempt a description of Andersonville prison. Abler 
pi'iis than mine have tried in vain to paint the pictnre. The 
horril)le sensation experienced by the captive, when the creak- 
ino- gates of a Southern prison closed behind him can neither 
l»e fullv imagined nor described ; from that hour his fate was 
veiled in impenetrable gloom, to which time added the black- 
ness of darkness, until the last ray of hope was well nigh 
sliut out forever. He was ft)rsaken by his Government, whose 
protecting care he had a right to expect. He Avas shut out 
from friends and home, and his appeals for relief were alike 
uidieeded by friends and foes. He was exposed to the burn- 
\u^^ sun of summer and the icy blasts of winter, with no bed 
except the earth, with no covering save the clouds of the sky, 
parched w"ith thii-st and mad with hunger, often destitute of 
liat or shoes, without clothing to cover his nakedness, tortured 
with flies and vermin by day and by night, even his comrades 
powerless to help. He was doomed to suffer a living death 
throno-h weary days and nights, weeks and months. The 
horrors of that life no pen can describe nor tongue can tell. 

After a short sojourn at An<lersonvilh' and a fruitless 
ctt'ort on my j)art to escape, 1 was taken to ]Macon, Ga., where 
the rest of our commissioned officers had ])receded me. On the 
wav from the city to our camp, under guard, we passed two 
young ladies going to see the Yankees ; one of them hande<l 
me a bouquet of magnolias. As I had been without anything 
to eat for 48 hours, I had my appetite with me, and im- 
mediately proceeded to reduce the su))ply of rebel commissary 
stores on hand. Years ago Byron wrote : , 

"All huiiKui history iittests, 
That happiness for man — the hungry sinner — 
Since Eve ate apples, much depends on dinnor."' 



While I was eating, Col. Maxwell fouii-l a note concealed 
in my flowers, which read as follows, vi/, after givinu' street 
and niuiiher : "You have our syni]»athy ; if you can esca])t' 
come to our house, and we will assist you. (Signed,) L<>;/<iI 
Maggie Langley.'" We were provided with tents, aiul en- 
camped on what had been a fair-ground, and guartled by tlic 
1st Georgia Infantry, commanded by Col. I)even])ort. 'I'hey 
were mostly Germans and iiad been prisoners in our hands in 
the early })art ,of the war. I'hey gave us good rations and 
treated ns well. But the few <hiys in this camj* was tlu' on<' 
sunny spot, the oasis in the desert of our prison lift'. 

On the iTth of May we were mnrclu'd inside of a stock- 
ade, newly constructed for the confinement of otticei-s ; it c()n- 
tained about two and one-half acres, surrounded by a stock- 
ade fence sixteen feet high, near the top of whi<di projected 
a guard walk. Fifteen feet inside of the stockade w:is the 
dead-line, an ordinary picket-fence. On the same day f^iM) 
officers were brought in from Richmond. \Ve weie divi('e(l 
into squads of 100 and each squad assigned a certain sjiace of 
bare ground, GO by 150 feet. 101 officers were cai)tured at 
Plymouth, and we became squad six. 

The only shelter inside the stockade was an old, one- 
story frame building, designated the hospital. The jtrisoners 
generally formed messes of from four to eiglit, who bunkecl 
and lived together; each one in turn was mess-cook for two 
days, and one was house-keeper or police for the same tinu' ; 
it was the duty of the house-keeper to police the (piarters ;!nd 
guard the rations and other property of the mess, a necessaiy 
precaution, as you may learn further on. 

The officer highest in raidv among the j)risoners was de- 
signated commanding officer inside the stockade, and he was 
required to detail an officer to act as Quartermaster. 

The rebel officers would hold no communit-ation with 
any one, except the officer in command or the Quartermastei-. 
For some time General Wessells was in commaiid, and 1 was 
Quartermaster. The officer highest in rank in each scpiad was 
commanding officer of the squad. An officer was detailecl 



t'uch inoniing as officer of the day, and he in turn would de- 
tail a police-squad to police the camp. You are not to under- 
stand however that rank counted for anything or was any ad- 
vantage to the prisoner. The General was esteemed no better 
than the Lieutenant; each one did police duty, did their own 
w Mshiiiij:, and every one scrutinized his own garments in 
scai-ch of the ever present pediculns corporis. 

Our i-ations were one jiint of unbolted coru-meal, often 
orouiid cob and all, one table spoonful of rice or black 
))ca.s, one tea spoonful of salt, and about twice a week we 
ivceivcd about five ounces of bacon and skippers mixed. 

We were not furnished any cooking utensils, and were 
obliged to use tin cups, flat stones or a piece of an old canteen. 
Our mess of six paid fifty dollars for a dutch-oven and were 
better equipped than any in the stockade at that time. Our 
)-ations were delivered to the Quartermaster in bulk, and by 
liini issued to each squad, which — by the way — was perhaps 
the most difficult and thankless duty 1 ever tried to perform. 
We had no scales, and no measure except a tin cup, and if 
l)erchance one squad received an ounce less meal or rice than 
some other squad, or a piece of bacon with more than the 
regidation amount of ski])pers, or if it smelled a little stronger 
than what their neighbor got, they would talk to me in lan- 
guage — not taught in Sunday schools ; and when I tried to 
resign, the General told me that I could stand abuse better 
than any one he knew. 

Captain W. K. Tabb, a very mean specimen of the Home 
Guai'd, was in command of the prison. We were guarded by 
Militia or Home Guards, boys from 12 to 17, and old men too 
feeble for service in the field. We had a process of initiation, 
and regular grades of promotion. For the first thi'te months 
a prisoner was called a fresh fish, the next two months a 
])ickled herring, then for two months a dried cod, and the 
balance of his time a smoked herring. 

The entrance to the prison was through a gate at one 
c-orner of the stockade; a bell gave notice when the gate was 
about to be o])ened, and T was re(juired to go immediately to 



the i>;ate and ascertain wliat was wanted. If a fresli arrival 
of prisoners, I would rnuut tlieni and show them to tlieir 
({iiarters. On all such occasions 1 was re<|nired to wear my coat 
and shoulder-straps ; not one iii fifty of the prisoners wore a 
coat, and hut few, more than two garmenis, — many only shirt 
and drawers. 

The sound of the liell would attract attention, and im- 
mediately on the appearance of a new arrival of prisoners, 
almt)st every man would yell "fresh fish, fresh fish,"" and rush 
for the gate ; before tlu' new-comer would be thirty feet inside 
the gate, his wav was blockeil, and he found himself sur- 
rouudel bv two thousand smoki'-bcgrimed, sun-burned, lank, 
lousy creatures, such as he had never seen or imagined before. 
The i-eception disgusted some and frightened others ; for in- 
stance — one nu)rning Col. Shernuni and Captain Brackinridge 
came in ; they were both neatly dresse;! in new clean, artillery 
uniforms. They were immediately surrounded by, what to 
them seemed to be. a vast nn)b of wild savages or lunatics, 
yelling "fresh fish, fresh fish, come out of that hat, I want his 
boots, keep your hand (Uit of his pocket ; oh, but they are 
dandies, let me kiss him for his mother, don't [tut lice on them 
yet, give them air, etc.'' ^Vs I made my way through the 
crowd, they noticed my shoulder-sti-a]»s ; the Colonel laid his 
hand on my sliouidei', and said : "My dear Sir, will you be 
kind enough to show us the officers' quarters." His i-equest 
cause:l a laugh, and increased the confusion. I told them that 
every man they saw was an officer. Just then Col. Lagrange 
who was well acquainted with Col. Sherman, came up; he had 
just washed his shirt and left it to dry and had nothing on 
but his pantaloons. He addressed Col. Sherman and extended 
his hand, but Sherman drew back. I told him it was Col. 
Lagrange in comnnind of squad nine, to go with him and he 
would furnii^h them quarters. 

We had three Chaplains in pi'ison with us, and had re- 
ligious service three times a week ; the chaplains would pray 
for the success of our army, for the President of the United 
States, for the destruction of the rebel army and downfall of 



tlu- CoiiiVMUM-acy, etc. This was not agreeable to Cai)t. Tabb, 
and he issued an ovdei- forbiddina; all prayei's ; nevertheless 
the ](ravers went on as usual. One evening Avlien we were as- 
senil)le(l for sei'vice, Captain Tabl) maixdied in at the head of 
about one hundred armed men. ( "haplain White of the ."ith 
l{h(»de Island was standing on a stum|) eondneting the ser-" 
vice; Chajilain Dicd^son of the KUh Connecticut ami Chaplain 
^Vhitnev of the 104th Ohio, and a))out one thousand men 
wei'e standing close around, singing. Tabb halted his men and 
made his way through the crowd to the stuni]) ; ass(»on as the 
singing ceased, he asked Chaplain White if he had read his 
order ])r()hiV)iting prayer, and announced that if his ordei- 
was violated there would not be a damned Chaplain alive in.- 
side of ten minutes. Chaplain White replied : ''Sir, we re- 
cognize that we ai'e ])risoners of war, that as such it is our 
duty to obey all i-easonable oi-ders in relation to onr ])ersons. 
Hut you have no right, and can exercise no control over 
our consciences; in all such nuitters we will exercise our own 
judgment regardless of consequences; \ve will obey God rather 
than nnm,'" — and immediately commenced one of the most elo. 
(juent prayers that 1 ever heard ; he prayed for the success of 
the armies of the United States, and for the return of peace, 
when no rebel Hag should be peniiitted to appear in the land, 
and for the desti'uction of the rebel army ami the rebel gov- 
ernment, and concluded by pi-aying for Captain Tabb, wdiom. 
he btdieved to be one of the chief of sinners. In the mean 
time two-thirds of all the jd'isoners hatl j()ine<l the crowd; al- 
most every one had ])rovided himself with a brickbat, a stone 
oi- a ]>ie(H' of wood, and when Captain Tabb looked around 
soon after the Cha]>!ain comnu'iiced his ])rayer, he saw Lieut. 
Richardson close beside him on the right, Col. Hanson on his 
left, and Col. ^laxwell in front of liim, each one with a brick 
in his hands, and himself ])acked in the crowd, so that he 
could not get out ; he also saw his soldiers surrounded by 
moiv than a thousand determin(>d men, armed with clubs, 
stones or bri(dvs ; when he undertook to move. Col. Hanson 
simiily raised h.is hand in wlTudi he held the bri(d<, and mo- 



tioiu'd to liiiii to st;UMi still ; every thiiiu' \va- still ami (jiiic-t 
uiili! tlic ]>i-ayc'r was I'lided, tlicii Chaplain Wlike at oiut' 
stt'])])L'(l (!()\\'ii ])esi(le Tal)l) and said to liiiii : "Captain, our 
services are ovei', and wlieiievei' you wisli to lea^e ^\ e will 
escort you to tlie gate, and \\v will lie ylad to liave vou and 
yoni' men attend our services often. ^^ Tabb replied : '''^{'liat 
was a (binined smart ))rayei', Cliaplain. )>ut it won't answer 
the pui'pose,'' and immediately started for the gate with White, 
Maxwell and Hanson as escort ; as he approaclied his men lie 
ordered tliem, left face, and iinirched tlicTn out. No furtlier 
attempts were made to prevent prayers. 

Al)out this time tlie rebels discovered three tunnels, and 
Cajit. Tabb issue<l an order that all jtrisoners not in ranks at 
roll-call would be shot down by the sentinels. In consequence 
of this order, men unable to walk without assistance weie ob- 
liged to staiul in the hot sun, often for an houi' at a time. 
Al)out the rsth of June, Cajit. Tabb was ivlieved, and Cajtt 
Gibbs was j)laced in command of the Prison. 

On the evening of tlie 4th of July, roll-call was repeated 
several times, and we were kept standing in line for over two 
hours. At'tei" roll-call Capt. To(hl of the sth New Jersey dis- 
played a small, knit silk U. S. Hag, four by six inches which 
had been knit and j)resente<l to liim by Miss Paradise of Jer- 
sev Citv. It was at once hailed with three cheers. The de- 
monstration alarmed the prison authorities, the long-roll was 
beaten and all prison guards were ordered out undei' ai'ms. The 
prisoners organized a meeting in the hospital buihling which 
was opened by prayer, sjieeches were made and songs sung. 
l>ut in the midst of it while Col. Thor]) was sjiea king. Ca]it. 
Gibbs marched a regiment of troo}»s inside the stockade, and 
ordered every man to his quarters. Wv had no alternative 
and obeved his order. 

Oui' mess oi six had made arrangements for a good -1th 
of July dinner. Our bill of fare was fresh beef, '^8.00 per 
pound, butter ^ti.OO per })ound, sweet potatoes, gree n peas, 
blackberries, green cucumbers, soft bread, tea, sugar, salt, 
vinegar and jK'pper, at a total cost of 1130.00, or $28.00 each. 



12 

To prt'VCiit tiinueliiio-, ('apt. (4il)lis issued the followiiit:- 
order, viz : 

Si-KciAi. Order | C. S. MILITARY PRISON, 

No. 0. \ 3r(ir<»i, (x(t., pTttue 22^ 1S64- 

Sentinels are instructt'd to shoot down all prisoners in the 
fiitiii-e who are seen nioviiiu' ahout eanip after taps. 

(4]:(). (4. (tIihds, 
( ^(tptuix (^o)inn<ni<iin(j. 

When \o\\ consi(]ei- that four out of five of tlie prisoners 
had diarrhcca, and that the sinks were at the extreme eorner 
of the stockade, you can have some idea of the effect of such 
■MX order. On the 2-Jd day of May, Lieut-. IL P. Baker of the 
1st Rhode Ishand Cavalry was shot and severely M'ounded by 
a sentinel, a boy about 14 years of age. He was standing by 
a tree twenty feet from the dead-line when shot. 1 presume 
the sliot was intended for me, as I was walking between 
Baker and the dead-line at the time. On the evening of the 
11th of June, Lieut. Otto Griersou of the 4(Jth New York, was 
shot and mortally wounded while at the spring for water. On 
the 16th an officer, whose name I have forgotten, was shot at 
the gate while going out with a squad for wood ; he was 
taken to a hospital outside and died. 

On or about the 2.5th of Jidy, General Stoneman left At- 
lanta with a division of Cavalry for the purpose of relieving 
the prisoners at Macon, destroying railroads, etc., and with 
ordinary good generalship should have succeeded. The rebels, 
however, seemed to know more about the intended raid than 
many of the officers who took part in it, and transferied tlie 
})risoners to Savannah and Charleston. Lieut. George S. Llastings 
of the 24th New York Battery, and myself, adopted a ]»lan to 
esca})e by concealing ourselves under the Hospital building 
until the ])risoners were taken out of the stockade, and then 
escape. Capt. D. W. Olcott of the truth New York, and 
Lieut. Cane of the 104th New York ado[)ted a similar plan. 
On the night of the 29th of July the last of the prisoners 
were taken out, and Capt. Olcott, Lieut. Cane and myself 
• — left. By some mishap Hastings was left behind and caji- 



tured. After an interesting ami Iiazai'dous ])iloi'imau'e of 
nineteen days we were re-eaptnred \>\ dogs, anci, eonfined in 
jail at Madison, Ga. After l)eing tliere thirty ]u»urs I again 
eseaped — Oleott and Cane being t jo siek to .travel -and after 
fom- days was again captured M'ith dogs, when within eiuht 
miles of Sherman's lines, and was again taken to Madison, 
and from there togetlier with Oleott and Cane taken to Agusta, 
Ua., where by order of the Pi'ovost-Marshal —a degenerate 
son of Governoi- Bradford of Maryland —I was heavily ironed 
and confined in a dungeon for nine days, as an outlaw, and 
fed on about six ounces of dry corn bread aiid a pint tin cup- 
full of water a day. 

The heavy ii'on shackle riveted immediately ovei- the 
wound on my leg, — Mhieh, owing to scurvy and exi)osui'e while 
attempting to escajte, had become an angry soi'e, — caused in- 
tense pai]i, which together with my miserable surroundings 
and insutiicient food, speedily. i-educed my strength both phy- 
sically and mentally. Aftt'r repeated messages sent by the 
old negro who Itrought my bread and M'ater once a day, the 
sherift' ct>ndescended to come and see me. In reply to nn 
earnest appeal for relief, he said he could do nothing foi- me, 
that I was cliarged with being an outlaw and a spy, and that 
he was only obeying the orders of the Provost-Marshal, lie 
finally agreed, however, to send a note to General Wriglit, the 
rebel officer in command at Augusta, and furnished nie paper 
and pencil wherewith to write it. In this note I stated that I 
was an ofHcer of the United States Army, and was heavily ironed 
and confined in a dungeon, that I was sick and wounded and 
nrdess soon relieved I must die. On receipt of my note, the 
General sent a rebel surgeon to see me who ordered my irons 
to l)e cut olt" at once, and conducted me into the presence of 
(General Wright and Captain Bradford, the Provost-Marshal. 
In reply to the General's inquiry, Bradford said I was an out- 
law, that I had escaped from every place wliere I had been 
contined, and was charged with being a spy. The General 
allowed me to plead my own cause, and I soon convinced 
him that I was neither an outlaw nor a spy. He said he did 



14 

iiol ;ii)i)r()\t' «i' the ill treatment of [)risoners of war ; that 
this was the second time he had found Capt. Bradford guilty 
of cruelty to prisoners, and that if it occurred again he would 
relieve him and have liini ordered to the front. He then sent 
uie to the back yard to wash, sent a negro to a restaurant foi- 
a good dinner foi' me, gave me a drink of brandy and sugai-, 
sent for the surgeon to dress my leg, and after a lengthy and 
interesting discussion in rehition to the war, he sent nie back 
to jail, where Olcott, C'ane and four other prisoners were con- 
fined in a large room on the second floor. After two (h\ys 
we were all sent to Charleston and confined in the jail yai'd, 
under tire of our batteries on Morris Island. Perhaps thei-e 
w as no rel)el prison where there was more consoli(bited misery 
to the square inch than Charleston jail-yard. It was sur- 
rounded on three sides l)y a wall eighteen feet high, the jail 
and workhouse forming one side of the inclosure. P2verything 
was in the most filtliy condition imaginable. The ground was 
literally covered with vei-niin. A felloM-prisoner has said, 
it was the nastiest, dirtiest, filthiest, lousiest place he was 
e\ ei' in. 

^Ve are told that as one of the great plagues of Egy]>t, 
"the dust of the land became lice.'" I do not know that the 
sand in Charleston became lice, but I do know that millions 
of them were in the sand. ^\t the risk of being thought im- 
polite, I have taken the liberty to 'd)orrow'' part of a poem 
written by a fellow-prisoner, which I have modernized to suit 
this })aper, viz : 

'■Of prison lice to us the direful spring- 

Of woes unnumbered, heavenly muses sius-"" 

Homer modernized . 

Think not my theme so tritling ; none that you can mention 
Receives, in prison, half so much attention. 
He who so lazy, so busv, or so nice, 
Neglects to give an hour or two each day to lice. 
Would be beset with troubles great and small. 
And have hard scratching to get along at all. 
If poets write of battles 'twixt frogs and mice, 
Wh}' n'bt of skirmishes "twi.xt men and lice ? 



15 

Ami while these verses rude we are inditing, 
Look "round to see the difPereut styles of tighting. 

Sisei'ii, a gi'eat warrior, was slain hy .lael. 
With those unwarlike weapons, a hammer and a nail, 
While to slay these parasites, so pestiferously accused, 
xVlthoLigh tiiere Ije no haniiuer, two nails are always used. 

Watch Pugilisticus, how he in a trice, 
Pulls off his dirty sliirt and pants, to tight his lice. 

Mark now (Tallaiitricus, that nice young man, 
With taper fingers made to a\ ield a ladies" fan, 
-Much disgusted, see him hunting, half ashamed of being seen. 
Thinks it "very unpretty,"" lice should stay in shirts so clean. 
See now liis handsome \isage. what contortions and grimaces, 
As if to scare the nasty things by making ugly faces. 
What would she think, his would-be future spouse. 
To see him strip and sijuat and grin and louse ? 

II(>re he ceased scratching lines, to sci'atch "scotch fiddle 
tunes'" 
At something crawling in his shirt and pantaloons. 

We wci'c w ithout shelter ; a few fragiiients of tents were 
(iccujiied by (Tenernl Stoneniaii uiid liis officers, l)ut they were 
soon cut to })ieces ami made into chdhiny- by the old jirisoners 
who were destitute. 

Six Imndred jirisoiu'vs were in the yard when we ai'rived, 
and every foot of space seemed to be occu})ied ; Lieutenant 
Hammond, an old friend and neighbor, divided quarters with 
me for tlie time l^eing. 'J'liat night a prisoner died of y('lh)w 
fever, and I took liis phice. It was directly under an ohl 
uallows which stood near tlie east wall. Prisoners who had 
been tliere some time tohl me that tliree men liad died there 
of yellow fever, and advised me not to stay ; they seemed to 
liave a su])erstitious notion that it was a fatal place. I dug 
up the sand to the dejith of six or eight inelies, throwing the 
fresh sand on top and held my claiin. This was the nearest 
I ever came to the gallows. 

Our i-ations were al)Out two -jjounds of tlour and three 
pints of corn meal for five days, issued all at one time ; none 



It; 

of our pai'ty, and l)iit few of the prisoners, had any cooking 
uteiisils, and no way to keej) our rations, except in our 
pockets. We wi'iv furnis]ie<l six barrels of water a <lay for 
six hundred men, and very little wood. 

]My friend Kichardson sugo-ested that we were so near 
hell, we did not need much fuel. 

The jail was a large fonr story building, the ground 
tiooi' was occupied by civil convicts, the second story by 
rebel otticers and soJdiers under punishment for military of- 
fenses, and the third and fourth stories by our negro prisoners 
of war. In the jail and workdionse they used a numbei" of 
large cast iron spittoons with loose lids, which the }»risoiiers 
in the jail carried down into the yard each morning to wash. 
While Lieut. Cane entertained the guard with an Irish story, 
I buried one of the spittoons in the sand, and as soon as they 
h'ft I dug it up, washed it ont and used it to cook in. 

Every evening our negro prisoners entertained us by 
singing songs, in a manner rarelv surpassed. One of their 
favorite songs was written by Sergeant Johnson of the 55th 
Massacdiusetts, colored ; I can now recite l)ut two verses of 
the chorus, viz : 

Now we're weeping' s;ul and lonely. 

Oh, how had 1 feel ; 
Away down in Charleston, South C'ar'lina, 

Praying for a good square meal. 
Now Fm hungry, lousy, naked. 

But we'll starve or tight. 
To defend the starry hanner sacred. 

Or die i'or the cause of right. 

Most of tlieii- songs were either oi'iginal or parodies, and 
no one with a grain of jiatriotism or music in his soul, wiio 
heard them, will cNcr foi'get them ; strong men wept, and 
the camp was hushed to listen. 

Early in -September we had one of the most fearful 
thunder storms that T ever witnessed; cold rain beat down on 
us in torrents during the day and night. The yard was levtd 
and without drainage, and befoi'e morning the water was ti\ c 



or six inches (loop. Through this flood we were compelled 
to walk continually to keej) up circulation. Two-hundred 
pounder shells from our batteries on Morris Island, — one 
every fifteen or twenty minutes — passed over us or exploded 
near us ; several times fragments came inside the yard. Yet 
it is a singular fact that while a number of the rebel soldiers 
guarding us, and at least three of their officers were killed 
by these shells, not one of our |)risoners was seriously in- 
jured. During September large numbers of our ])risoners 
died with yellow fever. The Rebel Captain commanding the 
prison and his adjutant both died in one night. But 

"No grief go great but runneth to an <'n(l. 
No hap so hard but will in time amend." 

So we sang, when aboiit tlie first of October we marched 
t)ut of the jail yard, and were transferred to Camp Sorghum 
near Columbia, South Carolina, — a transition, however, 
which forcibly reminded me of Satan's soliloquy : 

"Which way I fly is hell ; myself an hell : 
And in the lowest deeps, a lower deep, 
Still threatening to devour me. opens wide." 

We were kept under guard in an open field without 
shelter, and like Nebuchadnezzar of old, turned out to grass. 
Our ration was the usual pint of corn meal, and very filthy 
sorghum molasses, which to men in our condition at that time 
was about as nourishing as a diet of Epsom salts, hence the 
name Camp Sorghum. 

In view of the a})proaching presidential election the 
rebels were anxious to get an expression of our sentiments. 
They })roposed to furnish })aper for ballots, and publish the 
result in the city pajtei-s, if we would hold an election, hoping 
doubtless, the residt would be good news to send to their 
friends in the north. Our election was held in due form, and 
the result was ten hundred and sixty-four for Lincoln and one 
hundred and three for McClellan. The rebels were disap- 
pointed and cursed us bitterly. The papers made no mention 
of our election. 



18 

'riu' only ratiiui of lut'iit issiie-il to us at Columbia issued 
ils^'lf: an old wild hog chanced to pass the guard line, and 
as soon as he came within range, several hundred starving 
men gave him a hearty welcome : "he was a stranger, aud 
tliev took him in/' 

Wlien tlio black hog was seen on a run through the camp, 
Each soldier forgot his weakness and cramp. 
Tiie grunts of the hog and his running were vain — 
His foi-m will ne'er darken that camp ground again. 

For two weeks I had been quite sick and was no longer 
able to stand or walk, and ray wouiul had become infected 
with gangrene. With the assistance of Lieut. Saul of the 
25th Massachusetts, who gave me an order to the hospital^ 
wliich, he said, he had horroved from a man who had no 
further use for it, I was setit to the First South Carolina rebel 
hospital, in charge of Dr. Geo. R. C. Todd — Mrs. Lincoln's 
brother - where I spent the last month of ray prison life. I 
would like to tell you something about this hospital, but this 
paper is already too long. 

At the risk of being tiresome, however, I desire to say a 
'ii.'w words in defense of prisoners of war generally. In what 
I have said I have given you the bright side of prison life. 

We had with us in prison, men of every conceivable 
grade oi society ; and no condition in life so fully developed 
a man's trup character. We had men, and officers, who would 
condescend to act as spies for the rebels, or render thera 
any servile service to obtain their favor. They would apolo- 
gize for l)eing in the service, and curse the government they 
had sworn to defend. I know some of thera well, and am 
not afraid to name them if called on. This class were always 
well provided for by the rebels. They were generally paroled 
and given a comfortable place outside the prison pen. If kept 
inside, where they acted as spies, they were not attached to 
any squad or mess, but were well su})plied with ham, eggs, 
milk, and soft bread. We had two of them with us at Macon, 
one an officer of a Missouri regiment and the other of a Penn 



sylvania regiment ; a committee notitied tlieiii lli.it it iniolit 
become necessary to stoj) their wind ; next day they were 
taken out and hoarded iip-town. They are tlie chiss of ex- 
prisoners, who are ever ready to prochiim that j)ris()ners of 
war, as such, are not entitled to any special consideration. 
They were disloyal while prisoners, and are traitors to their 
comrades to-day. Thank God there were hut few of them. 
Prisoners soon became excessively selfish ; self-pre-ei-vation 
compelled them. If one had money, and a coiurailc \s as 
starving, he <]are not spend his money to relieAc him, as it 
was only a ({uestion of time when he would need it to save 
his own life. 

Our ])rison life did not all consist in loss of liberty, in 
subjection to the control of cruel enemies, in insufficient food, 
in scant clothing, in an exposed life, in the absence of all 
conveniences of living, (xod knows all these are bad enough. 
But to persons of any culture, isolation adds nuu-h to his 
misery. 

"The dreary void, 
The leafless desert of the mind, 
The waste of feelings uneinph)y<^d."' 

The world, friends, fellow-citizens and home, were 
things as remote as though in another sphere. The prisoner 
preserved affections and interest without being able to in- 
dulge them ; and thus with quickening pulse he dismissed 
continually the dove for the expected emblem, but it returns 
forever, with flagging wing and drooping head, not having 
found whereon to rest its weary foot. Thus there comes 
despair, and from despair comes always degradation. Men 
became reckless, because hopeless, brutalized, because broken- 
spirited, until from disregard of the formalities of life they 
became indifferent to its duties, and passed with rai)id though 
almost insensible steps from indecorum to vice, until a man 
would pick your pocket in i)rison, who would sooner cut his 
own throat at home. 



20 

Perhaps the best description of the condition of our 
j)risoners in the summer of 1864 that lias been written by 
any one, is the report of nu inspection and investigation, 
made by Surgeon Joseph Jones, by order of the rebel Sur- 
geon General. Jones was a bitter rebel, and an eminent phy- 
sician and surgeon, which makes his report all the 
more valuable. I have only time for a short extract from it 
in this pai)er, viz : "Large numbers of the federal prisoners 
appeared to ])e utterly disgusted with Indian corn. Those 
who were so disgusted with this form of food that they had 
no appetite to partake of it, except in quantities insufficient 
to supply the waste of the tissues, were of course in the con- 
dition of men slowly starving. In such cases, an urgent 
feeling of hunger was not a prominent symptom ; and al- 
though it existed at first, it soon disappeared, and was suc- 
ceeded by an actual loathing of food. In this state the mus- 
cular strength was rapidly diminished, the tissues wasted, 
and their thin skeleton-like forms moved about with the 
appearance of utter exhaustion and dejection. The mental 
condition connected with long confinement with the most 
miserable surroundings, and with no hope for the future, 
also depressed all the nervous .and vital actions, and was 
■ especially active in destroying the appetite. The effects of 
mental depression and of defective nutrition, were manifested 
not only in the slow, feeble motions of the wasted, skeleton- 
like forms, but also in such lethargy, listlessness and torpor 
of the mental faculties as rendered those unfortunate men 
oblivious and indifferent to their afflicted condition. In many 
cases, even of the greatest apparent stiff ering and distress, 
instead of showing any anxiety to communicate the causes 
of their distress, or to relate their privations, and their 
longing for their homes and friends, they lay in a listless 
lethargic, uncomplaining state, taking no notice either of 
their own distressed condition, or of the gigantic mass of 
human misery by which they were surrounded. Nothing a})- 
palled and depressed me so much as this silent, uncomjtlain- 
ing misery." 



21 

Wu have been amazed at the great number who liave no 
proper conception of what it was, to be a })risoner ot" war,or of 
the true history of rebel prison-life — or rather death in rebel 
prisons — and who profess to believe that prisoners were out of 
danger and much less exposed than their comrades in the 
front. These men would like to have people believe that 
prisoners had a pleasant time, in fact that a rebel prison-pen 
Avas a desirable place for soldiers, and was sought for as a 
haven of rest and shelter from the storm of battle. 

Men who make such assertions must be either wilfully 
ignorant or shamefully perverse. Authentic statistics show 
that the total number of men ca})tured by the rebels w^as, 
188,145 ; number actually confined in rebel prisons 04,0*72 : 
number who died while prisoners of war 55,910, or 59.43 i)er 
cent., or 00 per cent, in round numbers — of those confined 
for thirty days or over never reached their homes. 

"They fell whore they wearied, 
And lie where they fell." 

Now compare the mortality of prisoners of war with the 
risk of life in the field, viz : Total number of men received 
into the service of the United States during the war 2,3:55,951 ; 
total number killed in action or who died from wounds re- 
ceived in action 80,761, or 3.75 per cent. 213,075 died from 
disease or unknown causes, making the entire mortality of 
the army, — not including prisoners of war, — 300,437, or 
12.86 per cent., and 40,57 per cent less then the risk of life 
in rebel prisons. Again, 121,!S90 or 5.21 per cent, of the 
army in the field deserted or took the oath of allegiance to 
the Confederate States, while only 3,101 out of 188,145 or 
1.08 per cent, of those who were captured, deserted or took 
the oath of allegiance to the Confederate States. 

Now let those who will, call us "camp-followers,'' "cow- 
ards," or "skulkers." In defense, however, of the memory of 
50,000 comrades who lie buried in Southern prison graves, I 
l)rotest. Such slanders come with a bad grace from men who 



slioiild kiiDW what these men were. The loyal heroes wlio 
could have ])iireliase(l tlieir lives and their liberty with a 
pledge of alleoiaiiee to the Confederate States, who literally 
suffered and died a horril)le death in order that their goverii- 
ment might live, stand to-day as monuments of surpassing 
heroism and manly loyalty, worthy of admiration and eom- 
mendation dnring all <'oming time. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

IlllllllHlllilli 



013 786 649 3 



